Vampire Doll Quest 10: BloodlinesReturning to your castle with a huddled group of farmers within the shining ranks of your tin soldiers, you pass through the black-and-red rose garden of your front gates, and half-smile from atop your trusted steed, Fluffy. It would appear the castle is trying to cheer you up after you accidentally almost ate Scarlet.

Speaking of Scarlet herself, she's waiting for you at the gate, looking smaller than she was before. You don't have to look up at her anymore.

You hesitate.

… You honestly don't know how to apologize. You haven't had to for three centuries. You guess you're out of practice.

Scarlet seems to be waiting for you to speak. She looks terribly small and frightened.

Damn it, why did you have to name her after your sister?

You take a deep breath, and swing yourself off the ceramic hide of your hound, and give it a gentle pat on the head of thanks. Mostly you're stalling for time, though.

You turn. Scarlet just looks at you.

"Sorry."

You shake your head. What are you doing, apologizing to someone you made? She should be happy that you even… who are you fooling? Certainly not yourself.

Sure, you eat people. But only the ones not worth keeping.

And Scarlet is a masterpiece.

You let out a breath you didn't know you'd been holding.

"I should have known better than to try and scry on the spur of the moment like that. That backlash could have killed me. More to the point, it almost killed you. Is there anything at all I can do to make it up to you?"

>>251630231.You are Isabella Katarina Markova, twelfth of the line of Carmilla, thirteen generations from Dracula, the First. This places you with enough blood and power to make you a minor noble in Shadescast, the city of the vampires, and possess your own castle- which does not necessarily have sensible geometry, and which is not always in the same place. Though your physical appearance is that of a young girl, you are actually three and a half centuries old.

2.

3.You spend your time responding to requests from other vampires for lore, and holding tea parties and other social events, both with humans and vampires. On occasion, you indulge in adding one or two of them to your collection of porcelain dolls…

4.

5.Recently, you were attacked by a human vampire hunter who managed to temporarily kill you. Upon rising from death, you captured him and left him in the tender hands of your doll collection... but first he managed to majorly deface your castle and burn a portion of your library, including some hard-to-replace texts. Signs point to him having been hired by a rival vampire... and one who was here, and managed to take one of your dolls.

6.

7.Currently, you are working to turn the mayor of Mark into your soft, gooey servant. The process will take one or two weeks more. You also intend to invest in the airship trade- a process speeded considerably when the chattel you acquired to raise money were vastly overvalued by a vampiric noble by the name of Blackford. As a result, you gained control of his airship yards in Mark. When you returned from formally transferring control, you discovered that Rose had gone missing in your absence- So you had Scarlet, one of your Dolls' creations, drag her back to the Castle for you. In return, Scarlet was given Rose as her servant.

Five minutes later, you almost ate Scarlet after taking backlash from a failed scrying attempt. Now returning from the hunt, you can only hope for forgiveness.

Finally finished archives. So let me see if I've got this character straight.....

>Young adult by vampire standards.>Generally untalented save for an extensive knowledge of history and lore.>Sexually repressed, socially incompetent, somewhat immature.>Hates the world almost as much as herself.>Hides in her dad's basement and obsesses over collectables.

>>25163185>Generally untalented save for an extensive knowledge of history and lore.For what it's worth, a majority of vampiric society prefers not to get into a mental battle of attrition with Isabella.>Sexually repressed, socially incompetent, somewhat immature.She was embraced at 13, for what that's worth. And to preserve her independence, she's been playing up her "eccentric recluse" persona.>Hates the world almost as much as herself.I wouldn't go and say that, but vampire society isn't exactly a bastion of civilization, either.>Hides in her dad's basement and obsesses over collectables.The entirety of Castlevania is hers, and she had to literally kill her creator to get it.

I know what you're getting at, but I won't deny that Isabella is a little strange in her own way.

>>25163320The only thing we haven't gotten into at length is vampire politics, and we're making inroads towards that end. Some people want their fleshwerks, others want their airship empire, some just wanna be creepy.

>>25163023Hmmm, it's hard to put ourselves in Scarlet's shoes given that we've not seen too much characterization from her, and the only thing we know she likes is freedom, which she'd never be dumb enough to ask for (and after using powers on her for loyalty last thread might not be a priority anyway).

>>25163374I wanna say make more soldiers to patrol the castle. You can almost never go wrong with extra security around the house, especially since we were attacked once already.

As for vampolitics (eh? EH?), I'm wondering if Isabella even has any friends in the court. After the attack, you'd think one of them (a galpal or sumfin') would swing by to check on them. I mean, Isabella DID get ganked.

>>25163402She likes her new body, which is one of the only reasons she hangs around. I'd think she would want to preserve it one way or another. Beyond that, it's hard to say what she wants. She's literally less than a day old.

>>25163435Has it only been? Time flies when you're depopulating settlements. Let's ask to accompany Izzi to Shadecast so everybody can see how beautiful (and important!) we are.

Also this brings me back to a previous question from when you were eating dinner last thread. If we continue to dominate Scarlet will it get easier as her defenses slip? Or will she always roll the same acumen against our compulsions?

>>25163475If you want some ideas; Scarlet was a girl who lived on the streets of Eyesocket. She likes her new body not only because it's beautiful, but because it's powerful and makes her feel less vulnerable. She feels an attachment for the castle because it's the first place she's been valued in her life. Isabella has treated her more or less as an equal so far, so she has no real reasons to hate her.

>>25163435I'd say she is more loyal than that, due to the conversation where she pledged her loyalty. Maybe a promise to always keep a slave around and to help us restore ourself. I think Scarlett is ultimately loyal to the mc after all.

>>25163023I like this one. >>25163195Getting some artwork of ourself made so we can see our beauty even as we may change and become beautiful in different ways we'll always remember all the different facets of us.

Also asking for beautiful dresses, perfume and makeup, jewelry, and our own room to decorate as we see fit.

But most importantly asking Isabella to find out exactly what we are, tell her that we don't mind if it takes a while and won't blame her if her investigations don't yield any fruit, but that we want her to try, to sincerely try to find out.

This is a combination of things we'd like for getting hurt, and things we'd like as her Lady-in-Waiting.

>>25163475"Warn me next time you feel like doing something fatally ill thought out. Also, I would like you to teach me more about fleshcrafting, perhaps then I can come up with something to protect myself in the event you're overcome with one of your urges Mistress Isabella. I can also experiment with that dear Rose, she is mine to do with as I please provided she can continue to work correct Mistress Isabella?"

>>25163534So she values power because she doesn't want to be vulnerable again. Isabella's hunger episode reminded Scarlet how vulnerable she was even in this new body in this new castle and everything. Still, she's more powerful and more secure than she was in her old life, and she wants to preserve that. To do so involves being at Isabella's side.

I'd say just insist that next time, Isabella should warn her if something like that is going to happen again.

>>25163023"My body...it is a vision of beauty, but the world around it so gray and ugly. I would like...to change that. Some way to make others too visions of youth and ripeness, if not to my standards of perfection...when my lady allows it, of course."

I can't blame her for having a bit of an attitude after Isabella damn near destroys her. While Isabella may have named Scarlet after her Sister, that doesn't make Scarlet her sister. Scarlet has a right to be a bit upset.

>>25163374Oh hey, here's an idea for new craftworks: gargoyles to perch on the outside of the castle. Take Angel as a base, make it more burly, and post it on the outside of the Shadescast castle as a watchguard.

>>25163629Okay, minor pedantic point, unless they are also made to divert water from the building they are technically grotesques.

Just thought you should know.

>>25163647I'm sure he will be happy to see us, we can ask him about what's his face the 20th and ask how he is doing lately under the excuse that he asked for our aid a while back and we weren't sure how it panned out. He might have some insight for us.

>>25163660We could however take her to Shadescast, after we get her some blood though, she's not at her best right now.

>>25163599>Lord Blackford comes to pick up his airship from our airshipAssuming he comes in person, we must greet him.Thank him for the extremely generous terms he gave us but try to work into the conversation that we had to invest a lot into the airyard.

He might feel a bit less ripped off if he knows he sold us a fixer-upper.

>>25163599Let's talk with Blackford about his erstwhile Nosferatu kin. I'm equal parts for snarky Scarlet and Yandere Scarlet, though I don't think Isabella has done anything yet at this point to endear herself onto Scarlet other than subtle domination. It will take time, Scarlet doesn't seem like the kind of girl to want to hate/lustfuck the person who almost drained her like a red sponge.

We can ask Blackford about his family member, the one on our suspect list, I also reccomend we ask him about possibly searching for our misplaced doll, Selim. Depending on his mood of course.

>>25163676Yeah, Scarlet can only really be shown off in Shadescast. Tell her to refill her blood reserves to return to her natural (tall) self, but do it responsibly. Isabella wants her returned to the vision of loveliness she was earlier by the time she gets back from Mark.

>>25163704In favor of more "be more careful, dummy" it would be hilarious to see things happen the other way around in that Isabella becomes yandere for Scarlet, what with freaking out, murdering everyone, then sucking on her to mellow out.

1. Tell Scarlet to go eat some Rose to make herself presentable again, we're going out later. Watch their interactions to make sure Rose is acting right (and for funsies).2. Take inventory of servants. Put some of the slackers to work (thugly, mathlete). Begin Hoboflesh 2.0.3. Accept Blackford, ingratiate ourselves, see if he knows anything about his vampire cousin, the one we suspect was our dollnapper. Manage the shipyards more and look into beginning construction on our merchant fleet.4. Go on soirée to Shadecast. Sell excess slaves for holdings, look for clues, let Scarlet strut her stuff.5. Mindfuck the mayor.6. ????7. GALA! In a couple months from now probably. When is our dad's death-iversary?

>>25163629Why just Shadescast, with a bit of work, we can install those on all our castles, just make sure the work happens quickly, and overnight in the castle in Mark.

At a distance people will know they're just garg...grotesques. If they bother looking at them up close, they're really scary looking grotesques, but why would someone be looking up close in Mark anyway unless it's a local punk kid who no one would miss anyway.

>>25163972I think it should be focused on personal beauty, not necessarily the preservation of her current beauty. A wardrobe, jewelry, perfume, things so Scarlet can look at herself in the mirror and know that she is gorgeous. It's self-indulgent. Also, a giant floor-length mirror as part of that.

>>25163939I'm ok with this for the most part, I do think however we shouldn't supervise Scarlet, it would be a sign of trust and respect, hopefully that will minimize the damage done to the current relationship anyway.

What kind of time window are we looking at between when the ship arrives in Mark along with the Earl? I suggest we hold onto the slaves, perhaps see if the Earl is interested in some more chattel, if we give him a discount he might be more inclined to assisting us with our search, providing us with information on his cousin/childe?

>>25164006Going back to >>25163534 and >>25163590, it's not just that Scarlet is beautiful. It's that she's powerful and not as vulnerable as she was in her old life. Isabella is the first person to accept her, and Castlevania is the first roof she's not been turned away from. She wants to protect that, maintain that.

I'd say the best way to do that is allow her to feed to her original state.

>>25163993I don't think the general 'transpose feelings of frustration/fear/competition wrt sister, born from vampiric society/instincts, onto Scarlet' was that awful, if perhaps counterproductive. When the talk turned to fucking though, yeah...not so much.

>>25164066I'm running under the assumption that Earl Blackford is heading straight for Mark, since that's where his new airship is. We wait for him there at the base of his new cruiser and show him around personally.

Also, it gives us a chance to bum information off him on just how to create and run a personal air fleet. Also, we have to talk to him eventually about his ward Nalus, so it'd be as good a time as any.

>>25164066>perhaps see if the Earl is interested in some more chattelWe do /not/ bring up selling him more slaves unless he suggests the idea.Seriously, we just took his shirt. Just be friendly and try to maintain an amicable relationship.

If things are going well we might ask about his cousin, but if relations are tense, best not to bring it up right now.

>>25164154>Aren't the laws on attacking other vamps there pretty strict?The Laws of Hospitality are very strict but that doesn't cover anyone just walking around the city and I don't know if it applies to non-Vampires at all.

>>25164139And caught up. Damn, since we took so muck of her blood, I would have suggested giving her one drop of our both for it he infused euphoria and as a means of further weakening her mental defenses against us. If the vampirification think can apply to what I now assume is a blood construct, I will be pleasantly surprised.

>>25164232Yeah, but if some dick jumps Scarlet while we're looking the other way, we might lose her.

Also, it's unclear how the Laws of Hospitality work. They might not apply to non-Vampires at all.If we enter another Vampires crib, they might be free to snack on Scarlet while we must respect the Hosts Right.

>>25164316We were talking about in Shadecast 'card. But either way I'm not too worried about it. Anybody weak enough to attack her on site would probably be within her ability to defend against (until we skullfucked them).

>>25164368Support giving Scarlet some of our blood. Best case scenario it binds us to her. Worst case scenario... she becomes a vampire and is bound to us.

>>25164312If she asks, we shackle her mind or destroy her before it's too late. We do not want the seeds of equality (which will lead to rebellion) growing in our minions. And we are not offering, either we do it (without her input) or we don't.

>>25164462Maybe give mr sycophant something to do, he may be all about furthering his own ambitions, but that's no reason to let him laze around - we just need to find something that doesn't have a lot of potential for betrayal, and isn't incredibly risky and likely to make him desert.

His ambitions and looks might make him an ideal agent in Mark - Eyesocket is too made for him, and in the other two he's unnecessary and in danger. Send him out to gather information on rival airship-yards and see if he can find any gossip about us perhaps?

>>25164566We have a minion that knows that, for whatever reason, we care about her well being beyond the master servant paradigm that is still a pretty good deal given that we are a vampire. That gives her both leverage and a sense of security... Well, I guess we'll see if she's smart enough to remain cautious or if she'll grow emboldened and force us to correct her behavior, or replace her.

>>25164606For once, I don't think we should play up the cute angle. We're approaching Earl Blackford as a proper businesswoman. It's OUR airfield, after all. We have to act the part and be important.

>>25164650Scarlet may be the most intelligent of all our constructs, but she's still technically a construct. She's an equal insomuch as we respect her opinion, considering she actually has a few brain cells to rub together.

Personally for him I would tell the dolls to use the experience they have gained to make him something a little stronger and more useful. Give them a few hobos to use as raw material then when we return we can see what they build.

>>25164650I'm saying that because we're a vampire, it's not the best idea to be friends with the people with most access to rip your throat out or accidentally throw a wrench in carefully laid plans. I don't think Scarlet has proven herself sufficiently to rate a tentative friendship. Not yet at least.

>>25164696I think we should take personal charge of that project, maybe with doll assistance. I'd like him to keep a human appearance and intelligence so we can bring some brute muscle with us in public.

>>25164713>>25164777>SlableyLet's work on him when we get back. I'd say 1/4 of the dregs should suffice. We want to turn him into something presentable, a bodyguard we can take to Mark with us, not a body horror. Maybe subdermal enhancements, metal bones, extra heart, ect..

>>25164733For Maxwell, do both. He needs to learn proper etiquette and handling, and he's an unassuming set of eyes to have in Mark. He won't be working on the airfield, since that's more under our domain, but having a direct set of eyes in Grand Victoria to keep us appraised on details is good to have. Plus, it gets him out of our hair, so we don't have to hear him prattling about being embraced.

As for Slab, I wouldn't say convert him wholly into raw materials, but as others suggested, use him as a base for a giant bruiser-type of a fleshwerk.

>>25164777At the least, AFTER giving Blackford his new airship. Slab will be the basis of our new masterpiece.

>>25164733I say we use him in Mark, he should already know how to behave as long as it's not around nobles (where we'd want to step in ourselves anyway), and he's not personal servant material IMO - doesn't really excel at anything, and would require a good amount of mindfucking to make loyal which would hurt his intelligence further. Just do some slow mindfucking to keep him from deserting, and use him as long as possible - he won't be satisfied acting as intelligence-gatherer for long I suspect, but once we think he's started to scheme we can just rip all info out of his mind.

Slab is raw materials, he's too dumb for the tradeoff to NOT be worth it anyway. Use a medium number of hobos, maybe 5 - 6 or so.

>>25164839I say no on that, we don't need any distractions, and it's not like he is going to do anything for us there. Besides, if we're devoting time to train him while there, we might miss something crucial.

>>25164883We can do that ourselves. I don't want Maxwell working on the airship: my latent paranoia tells me he'll try to sabotage the airfield to draw attention to himself and press the issue to be embraced, and that's shit we're not willing to deal with right now.

>>25164903If he's that fucking stupid we might as well be forewarned so we can mindrape him and use him however we can right away. And the workers know who we are now, not to mention that we are effectively a little girl, which has already prevented us from receiving information with the mayor. He'd have better luck.

As you head towards the front gate, you realize that you have blood all over the front of your dress. Hardly a suitable state to receive a fellow vampire in Mark.

One hasty change of clothes later, you're stepping into a carriage bound for the airship yard, a crisp set of businesswear making your childlike form much older-looking. The constricting garment seems to help steady your nerves, and by the time you arrive you're feeling as cool and calm as ever.

It would appear that the airship isn't due to be picked up for another hour or two; you've arrived in plenty of time. Do you wish to do anything while you wait for the Earl to arrive?

>>25164839Let him study I say. We'll deal with all the servants in turn when we return.

More of a general question. Since our low grade suggestion/dominate ability doesn't damage people's brains and promotes loyalty why aren't we using it more? Like WAY MORE. However attached people may feel about Scarlet, is anybody really opposed to doing this to the maid, Maxwell, Rose, ect.?

>>25164947I advocated leaving it off the maid for now just so we see what we're working with; the rest are fairly easy to read after all. Start using it on her in a few days. Not opposed for the rest of the rabble.

>>25164960Scarlet, who probably has the best willpower and intelligence of our servants, and who has her own dominate ability, failed against us (barely but she did). I don't see Snackwell noticing it, and if he does? We weren't terribly attached to him anyways.

>>25164945How long has it been since we put in the orders for the expanded barracks and specialist offices? Check on employee turnaround: I want to see the immediate effects of our new policies (abolishing company credit, etc.). Also, see if any new commissions have come in yet.>>25164960Plus, it's a waste of resources to keep it up.

>>25165037You take a moment to take stock of the airship yard's running operations.

Employee satisfaction seems to be up, and from what you hear from the foreman, the other airships are being built much faster now that they can be worked on in parallel. You'll have all the current commissions done by the end of next week at this rate.

>>25165083Stand at attention with the foreman next to us where the earl's coach will come to a stop. Greet him personally, and show him to his completed airship. Have the foreman run over the specs as we give Blackford a full walkthrough of his ship.

You know, since our soilders can be flesh-sculpted without our interference we could probably make a brisk business selling them. We'd either need to partner with someone with a steady supply of raw materiel or acquire it our-self though.

>>25165083Warm and conciliatory. Talk up how much money we've sunk into this place. Maybe give him something of value as a bribe (sell him the holdings in Ulvenwald for a song?). Then start pumping him for information about his family.

>>25165100We've got lots of time. At the very least the more expendable of them who aren't likely to make the saves (Slab, maid, Maxwell) would make good targets. If they do catch on then we just consider them sunk investments and convert them to raw materials. There are lots of hobos in the world.

I still say we should continue with Scarlet since she is so close to us and so dangerous. We've degraded her will once already. I know nobody else will support this though.

>>25165184I like it, but lets do it on the ship, it's going to be more private there anyway, we don't want to have to hide our nature while discussing things after business. Perhaps we can even treat the Earl to a short maiden voyage.

Curteously, and almost upsetly tell Blackford how much money you had to dump into this place to keep the workers happy... You thought it'd be easy but that horrid foreman SHOUTED at you and you almost broke down.

>>25165319>>25165107Fortunately, you took the time in this last hour or so to actually tour the Earl's ship so you won't acidentally confuse the captain's cabin for the kitchen.

Not that it has much of a kitchen, but...

In any case, the Earl Blackford is greeted by the sight of you and the foreman waiting for him as he alights from his coach. Even in the darkness of early night, your vampiric vision picks him out easily as he tips his hat to you politely.

"The Lady Markova, I see! Good to see you once again, my dear. I take it you're here to make sure the transfer of the ship goes smoothly, hm?"

You nod to him, and curtsey, as befits your relative rank both here and in Shadescast.

"Yes, milord. I hope you appreciate the fine craftsmanship put into the vessel."

He smiles at you with quite a bit of teeth.

"I know exactly what sort of craftsmanship was put into the vessel, my dear; I supervised its construction personally. Or did you forget that this was my shipyard until recently?"

You shake your head.

"Of course not, Lord Blackford."

He nods to you.

"Well then, let's get on with business."

The transfer of title is simply enough done, but the Earl declines your invitation to dine aboard his ship.

"It's utterly presumptuous for you to invite me to dine aboard my own ship, don't you agree, little girl?"

You apologize, of course, but the damage is done, and you have no chance to grill the lord for any information on his cousin. The ship is duly sold, and the Earl flies off in his new smuggler's blimp, piloting the entire thing alone. A multitalented vampire, that one.

>>25165397Well. Shit. That could've gone better.Whatever. Blackford is a stuffy type. We'll let that one go. The fact is, his project is done, his airship is still ours, and we're now far ahead of previous timetables. We should ask about commissioning our own ship, especially after that surplus of holdings from claiming the Ulvenwald village. Unfortunately, we're gonna have to do some manual legwork to get more information on Nalus.

Well, let's get Maxwell situated and start his training before we retire to begin crafting our next masterpiece out of Slab.

>>25165471>>25165478Fleshcrafting is quite the relaxing hobby of ours, but shouldn't we focus on recovering selim first, we just blew a major lead. And every minute he is missing, who knows what's happening. The dollnapper obviously has some form of magic available to them, perhaps they want to figure out our fleshcrafting techniques. We need to get this issue fixed soon, because what if they decide they need more?

Alucard, in the world of fleshcrafting where does our skill rate. Bum, hipster, hobbyist, artist, skilled artist, pays the bills, or master?

Random examination of the rolling system, we have absurd Acumen, 54, that's so far above average, yet on most tasks involving intelligence we been shown to have a 46% chance of failure on them. That's way too high a chance of failure for something basic like not offending the fuck out of a guest.

And often we're required to make multiple rolls targeting multiple stats to do an action which lowers the rate of success on it manipulatively, look at the scrying, we did great on the Eeriness, but because we fucked up the Acumen we ended up getting very little from the scrying and taking giant buckets of Hunger.

Let's say we have to do some Fleshcrafting, we might need to roll Acumen and Eeriness, that gives us a 67.6% chance of fucking up at least one of the rolls and we're supposed to be so far above the norm at this that it isn't even funny.

Add both of these together and we'll be failing things we should succeed at more often than not. It's not just /tg/ dice, it's just the law of large numbers.

Two things, first, situational bonuses should be easier to get, it should only be a straight roll against the stat for a difficult task, second, allowing for other more bonuses from sources such as skills and equipment, if we're familiar with a subject, such as Vampiric or Victorian Etiquette, Fleshcrafting, Scrying, yadda yadda, or have a book that involves the subject we're researching.

>>25165526>Oh right the merchant fleet, we wanted that. Let's funnel our meta-money into building a ship while the yards are open.Wait on the airships. We only have 8 holdings to spend (and 4 of them are voodoo economics).

We were going to build up some funds with slave gold for a few weeks.

Once the Mayor is our BFF we might be able to get a better deal on our trade licence. We can start work on our fleet then.

>>25165622If our voodoo gold is passively generated then getting it off the books as fast as possible is advisable. What better place to launder it too? If we fail the acumen check here at least we'll be robbing ourselves.

Do we know where this nosferatu guy lives? I propose we take the offense and start making active inquiries, yes it will draw attention to ourselves, we can then try to scry again if we have deadends. If Selim has been moved following our inquistion, we may be able to surmise that we hit a nerve and can follow that.

>>25165726That's a key issue. We don't have a single solid lead beyond the idea ripped from the hunter's mind that his client was someone in Shadescast. Unfortunately, that's a wide net to cast. We're kinda dead in the water as far as leads go. Hopefully, when someone finds out we're okay, they can come forward with a hot tip as to who sicced the hunter on us.

>>25165726There are 35 vampires who have recently visited your castle. You accidentally started a riot in the Republic of Mori a few years ago that had bad consequences for basically all the nobility in the area near Mori.

>>25165779Oh, on an entirely unrelated note, what would happen if we ate another vampire? Not just its heart, all of it. Asking because I'm wondering why there was enough of our sire's body left to incinerate and speared over a sunlit field.

>>25165761Plus, this is only following the trend of vampires who specifically might have it out for us. For all we know, it could be someone unrelated to anything that has either had an eye on us for years and is looking to take us out, or just attacked us out of the blue for no reason.

>>25165806> The vampire took your doll, so he was in your castle.> The person holding your doll has access to powerful magic that can interrupt your scrying. > They have a grudge against you that makes them want to hurt you.> The Hunter came from the Ulvenwald door, so whomever spoke to him must have been in Ulvenwald at some time in the past.

Though it is possible the connection to Ulvenwald is a trap. After all If I wanted to screw with some vampire I would send a hunter though a door a decent length away from my domain. Arranging transportation after all you don't want if you fail that vampire to know where your holding are.

A vampire of the line of Lestat, Agen Lioncourt. Tenth of his line, if you recall correctly. He was staked by an angry mob as a direct result of your riot in Mori, and lost much of his holdings as well. Now he has property in Ulvenwald as a way of avoiding future entanglements.

The second is the same Nosferatu that you attempted to inquire about today. Not that he has the metaphysical muscle himself, but you have heard that he has a powerful human mage on his staff. He also has some property in Ulvenwald, mostly because he can't find any anywhere else.

The third is your sister. Not that she's been here recently that you know of, but she would know where to find the dolls and the castle well enough to avoid your servants. She's a metaphysical match for you, and holds property in Ulvenwald.

>>25165997Who among them would have had access to a Holy warhammer? Granted, they're probably all powerful enough to make it trivial, and the Hunter may have brought it, but it's still useful information.

>>25166232Is it possible to learn something in that vein of research from one of our dolls? It doesn't'seem all that likely. I think Agen is a dead end, ha, and it was Nalus, or dear sister. Maybe she is offended we named a blood elemental after her and wants to hug and hold hands with us long into the eternal night and then spill our cake icing all over the kitchen floor.If you know what I mean.

>>25166339What if he ran afoul of a "werewolf" in the dark and dangerous forest on his way to our castle, a wolf that sometimes we call Fluffy? Then him being our guest, we come to his timely rescue, ward of the attacker, then ask him a few pointed questions?

>>25166537Archive: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/25163023/Vote here if you care: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Vampire%20Doll%20QuestNext thread will be tomorrow, possibly in the morning because weekend!

>>25166586In the case of loss of a duel, generally the winner eats the loser. This is a binding transfer of all lands and titles in Shadescast, but will take explanation elsewhere. You'd be expected to kill him. If you left him alive he would become your enemy for life, because that would be public humiliation (he wasn't even worth killing.)

We'd have to create more than one.Probably upgrade them with some basic stealth.Find his holdings in the woods.Have them stalk around the area.Attempt to lure him out. (human bait wander past his crib)

Yeah. We'll need to gather a lot more intel, and probably adjust the plan to fit what we learn, but this seems like a good frame-work.

>>25166897As long as it's outside, we should be alright, maybe the Earl will view us as even a bit enterprising and appreciate us for removing that blight on his house. We may also become more chummy with him since we're now "family".

>>25167056Autocorrect strikes again...I think we ended in a good spot. Hopefully next time moves quicker like earlier episodes. I like the debate but we got really sidetracked today. Also thanks Alucard for repealing the name rule, I feel like a real participant.

Hate to be that guy but we're already in autosage so.... could we not fuck around so much? I really like the quest but we get sweet fuck all accomplished. Somehow we discuss things for hours yet never come to a consensus.

>>25167301He gone mang. I'm just talking about in general. It's not surprising that we're so bad about it. Op doesn't run with a lot of notes, barely ever railroads us, and has a metric buttload of players. Still though it's starting to get on my nerves a bit.

>>25167349I feel you, I actually told him to >getonwithit.jpgand he typed up the section where we arrived at the shipyard. It's up to is to keep it moving because if we don't tell him we want to move on rather than discussing things, how should he know.

>>25167457For what it's worth, it was a necessary discussion towards goals and intentions in the near future. Now that we have a rough gameplan of who we're going after and what we should aim for, there should be more work to do. Plus, you had to explain vampire politics and etiquette, so I don't blame you for faffing about a bit to get that information out. Vampires aren't the sort to go into something half-cocked, usually.

>>25167488The system is extremely complex for a quest format. As players learn the background that will abate but it's going to be a steep curve. I honestly don't know how to fix it. Maybe prompt people more agressively to vote on actions. Puting us in more reactive situations helps. People focused in very well when we had to waste that village. And just in general not having so many open plot threads at once. It's hard for players to track with that so people latch onto their favorites and ignore everything else.

This was necessary, we needed to narrow down our suspects and think about our options.

The only other things we could have done are:Not look into it at all and wait for it to bite us on the ass. Or.Not think about it and just wander blindly through the investigation. Thus, achieving nothing.

It's done now. Most of the discussing stage is out of the way.We have two prime suspects and a plan to eliminate one of them.

Before this falls off the page;We're going about this wrong. No ambushes and so on until we're sure. This is dumb.

What we do, is we make a new version of Fluffy that is highly sensitive and wants to hug living porcelain dolls.

Then, we simply request a visit each castle in turn. If our new fluffy reacts, we can find out something; if not, well, we should visit on investigative matters anyway. We can do so on the pretext of seeing how each is doing with their fleshworks and the like, to catch up on so on.